Today, many organisations continue to rely on printing to support business processes, particularly in the public sector, finance industry and legal profession. Networked printers and multifunction peripherals (MFPs) have evolved to become integral to the network, operating as sophisticated document processing hubs.

With the ability to print, copy, scan to network destinations and send email attachments, these devices come equipped with hard disk drives and often run internal web servers. Whilst MFPs and printers have improved business productivity, they pose the same security risk as any networked device if left unprotected.

With reported data breaches on the rise and growing industry and regulatory requirements around information security, businesses may suffer financial and reputational damage if they ignore the risks of unsecured printing.

The market landscape for print security is complex with little standardisation, characterised by a mix of hardware capabilities and proprietary software from MFP manufacturers along with independent third party software products.

Quocirca’s research has revealed that although larger enterprises are stepping up their efforts to improve their protection, many companies have much work still to do in safeguarding their enterprise print infrastructure.

This report provides an overview of the inherent risks when operating an insecure print environment and discusses the current market landscape while recommending some best practices for adopting an integrated information and print security strategy.

Quocirca is a research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communications.